February 16, 2020
/6 Epiphany
Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9; Matthew 5:21 - 37
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
So in today’s Gospel reading we hear Jesus talking about lust and adultery – Happy Valentine’s Day! The reading itself also seems severe – “if your right eye causes us to sin we should cut it out, and if our right hand causes us to sin, we should cut it off. Understand that Jesus is using hyperbole here. He’s not really telling us to pluck our eyes out or cut off arms, even if those are the means in which we sin. If I were to take this verse literally, I would be standing here today with a patch over my right eye and a stump for where my right hand used to be. I think most of us would. What an interesting looking congregation we would be!
But Jesus is making a point, and it is a point all of us should be paying attention to. There is a lot that is in this Gospel reading today – unfortunately too much for one sermon – unless you all want to hang out here for two hours. So I am choosing to pick one small part of this Gospel. And it’s from the very last paragraph today. And it’s a teaching Jesus gives on swearing – not cursing. Swearing. “Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.”
Have you every sworn a promise to another person or maybe to yourself, and invoked God’s name? Have you ever said something like “I swear to God I will never cheat again.” “I swear to God I will pay all that money back – this time.” Any of that sound familiar?
It is this kind of promise – this kind of oath we swear to another person where we invoke God’s name – that’s what Jesus is talking about this morning. Promises come cheaply these days. We are gearing up for another presidential election cycle (God help us all), in which we are about to be inundated with promises candidates will make about things they will do, if elected. Depending on your political persuasion, you might have feelings that those promises either turn out to be true or more often are discarded or forgotten once elected.
During the time of Jesus, making a public oath was a common practice. People would make oaths, or promises, and they would call down curses upon themselves should their pledges prove false: “may God punish me severely to me if I do not not return the ox I am borrowing to ploe the field.” We all know human nature, and our tendency to not fulfill the promises we make. We’ve all promised something, and been unable to deliver on the promise.
Jesus was aware of this, of course, and that is the reason for his teaching “don’t swear by heaven or Jerusalem or by God.” This was common, by the way, where people would substitute something like “Jerusalem” or the “temple”, or heaven or earth, instead of God’s name – because it was a way of avoiding divine retribution if the promise was unfulfilled. “I swear by Jersusalem I will return the ox I am borrowing to plow the field by sunset.” They would avoid using God’s name in hopes of avoiding God’s punishment should the promise go unfulfilled. It was a cop out, basically.
In light of the widespread abuse of promises in society back then, Jesus said that it’s best to avoid them altogether. If you have integrity, you can say, yes or no. You don’t need to involve God because you have enough integrity to stand on your own. Jesus simply says, “let your yes be yes, and your no be no.” I don’t know about you, but my tendency, if I am saying no to a person, is to want to justify, defend, and explain my “no” response. I’m sorry I can’t be at the meeting tomorrow because well you see I need to be at my kid’s school for an event and then we are meeting for dinner afterwards, and then we have to do homework…” We don’t have to do all that. We can let our yes be a yes, and our no, well, be a no. Because people who follow Christ honestly and with humility, have an integrity about them – the kind of integrity where their “yes” or their “no” is enough. No other explanation, or promise invoking God’s name is necessary.
Though we are taught today not to invoke God’s name in promises we make – God has made a promise to each of us – a promise that cannot be broken or undone. And the promise is this – God will always be with us, God will never forsake us, and we will never be alone. That is love – a kind of love only God can offer, and it is given freely to you and me. AMEN.